Birmingham TreePeople approached the City of Birmingham to apply to become a part of the Tree Cities in 2019. The Trustees were aware that our city exceeded the 5 separate criteria standards to successfully achieve it. We were incredibly proud, and still are, to receive this honour.
What is the programme about?
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Arbor Day Foundation have developed this programme to celebrate greener cities and towns worldwide. To spread Tree Cities across the globe, they collaborate with similar organisations to provide support to community leaders.
“Urban forests help define a sense of place and well-being where people live, work, play, and learn. The Tree Cities of the World programme is an international effort to recognize cities and towns committed to ensuring that their urban forests and trees are properly maintained, sustainably managed, and duly celebrated.”
Arbor Day Foundation
Here is a link to the Tree Cities homepage, where you can read more information.
Why was Tree Cities started?
Mantova Green Cities Challenge, issued by world leaders during the 2018 World Forum on Urban Forests, included the Tree Cities of the World programme. This will connect cities worldwide, sharing our hard work, using other successful approaches to managing urban forests. This will continue to improve through the global network of arboriculture and forestry professionals.
Here is the list of partners.
What are the benefits of our Tree City status?
Reducing costs for: energy, managing storm-water, controlling erosion.
Boosts community property values & strengthens community relations & pride, by showing our commitment through the delivery of our projects.
The 5 core standards provide a framework for future endeavors, but BTP already met the criteria, so we will continue as we began.
Public relations and publicity have not been scarce. We hope to continue our growth with our many activities to improve Birmingham’s green-space.